Category: CRM ROI

You donâ€™t need me to tell you times are a bit tough right now. Buyer confidence is low, and that means that keeping the customers you have is even more importantâ€”let alone attracting new customers.

It seems that having a project come in On-Budget is the and holy-grail of project management, especially when it comes to CRM projects. With their 70% failure rate, CRM projects represent a significant risk to a small business’ financial health and warrants more "measure twice, cut once" consideration before beginning.

Know your biggest pain points and determine how damaging they can be to your business if left untreated.

Undoubtedly, the most common question I hear from companies is "How do I cost justify my CRM investment?" While project costs have come down over the past 12 to 18 months, this remains a key issue. What surprises me now, however, is that this matter frequently arises for the first time in earnest near the end of the evaluation–sometimes right before the project plan is presented to management for approval.

By this time the project team has the expense side of the equation nailed down: software license fees, maintenance, consulting support, hardware, administrative support, training, help desk, etc. The team can recite the dollars-out half of equation in its sleep, but what about the dollars back?